Street of Chance *** (1942, Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Louise Platt, Sheldon Leonard, Frieda Inescort, Jerome Cowan) – Classic Movie Review 11,466

Director Jack Hively’s 1942 Paramount Pictures film noir Street of Chance is based on the 1941 novel The Black Curtain by Cornell Woolrich and stars Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Louise Platt, Sheldon Leonard, Frieda Inescort and Jerome Cowan.

Burgess Meredith stars as Frank Thompson (Meredith), a man with no memory, who tries to discover his identity and to clear his name of a murder charge. Claire Trevor also stars as Ruth Dillon, a woman who protects him from the police, who suspect him of murder. It transpires he is known by another name and is running from a murder he cannot remember committing. Sheldon Leonard plays Joe Marucci, a detective who is shadowing him. Louise Platt plays Fran’s wife Virginia, who is shocked to see the husband who suddenly disappeared a year earlier.

The subject matter – with Garrett Fort’s screenplay based on the 1941 novel The Black Curtain by Cornell Woolrich – may be a shade over-familiar and predictable, but the treatment is compact and pacey, and the film holds the attention once the necessary set-up is out of the way.

The acting is top class, with Meredith quite credible as the forgetful lead and Trevor outstanding as the female lead.

Also in the cast are Adeline De Walt Reynolds, Arthur Loft, Clancy Cooper, Paul Phillips, Keith Richards, Edwin Maxwell, Cliff Clark, Ann Doran, Ralph Dunn, Harry Tyler, Sonny Boy Williams, Gloria Williams, Reed Porter, Milton Kibbee, and Gladden James.

The main cast are Burgess Meredith as Frank Thompson, Claire Trevor as Ruth Dillon, Louise Platt as Virginia Thompson, Sheldon Leonard as Joe Marucci, Frieda Inescort as Alma Diedrich, Jerome Cowan as Bill Diedrich, Adeline De Walt Reynolds as Grandma Diedrich, Arthur Loft as Sheriff Lew Stebbins, Clancy Cooper as Burke, Paul Phillips as Schoeder, Keith Richards as Intern, Ann Doran as Miss Peabody, Cliff Clark as Policeman Ryan, and Edwin Maxwell as the D.A. Stillwell.

It has no relation to the 1930 film Street of Chance.

The man with amnesia is named Frank Townsend in the original story.

There has also been one adaptation of the novel for television: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour – The Black Curtain, directed by Sydney Pollack, broadcast on 15 November 1962.

Woolrich’s work was often published under one of his many pseudonyms. ‘William Irish’ was the byline in Dime Detective Magazine (February 1942) on his story It Had to Be Murder, source of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window. François Truffaut filmed Woolrich’s The Bride Wore Black in 1968 and Waltz into Darkness in 1969 as Mississippi Mermaid.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,466

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com